Container carriers are used frequently to unitize a plurality of containers, such as bottles or cans, into conveniently saleable quantities. Both paperboard and plastic are materials commonly used. Paperboard carriers generally comprise a box in which the containers are held. The box may be totally enclosed, or may have an open top, with individual compartments for each container. Disadvantages of paperboard carriers include excess material and cost. Further, once opened, an enclosed box no longer holds the containers securely. An open top carrier can spill the contents therein, if inverted.
Plastic carriers have achieved wide acceptance for their performance, low weight, low cost and versatility in being adapted for containers of different sizes and shapes. The general design for plastic carriers includes apertures in a stretchable plastic material. The apertures are sized and shaped to stretch around the periphery of the containers to be held, either bottles or cans.
For convenient carrying of a group of containers held by the carrier, various types of hand-grasps are known. For example, it is known to provide holes for fingertip grasping of the package. It is also known to provide a handle on the carrier, either along one side of the group of containers, or at the tops of the containers. Automated machinery is available for attaching stretchable plastic carriers to containers quickly and efficiently.
In one such known design, the carrier is formed from two webs of plastic material positioned over one another. Handle portions and container engaging portions are stamped from the positioned webs simultaneously. The webs are fused or welded along selected portions, such as by lamination. The resulting handle portion is thereby a double thickness of material, and the container engaging portions freely depend therefrom. The container engaging portions are a single ply of material. An interconnecting, truss-like suspension portion interconnects the handle portion with the container holding portion. The individual arrays of container holding loops extend freely from the suspension portion.
A trend in the beverage industry is to group larger quantities of containers for sale. While plastic carriers, as described above, have been used for so-called twelve-packs, known carriers for twelve packs commonly have been of the side handle variety. That is, with the containers secured in the carrier, and arranged in an upright position, the carrier handle is provided along one side of the group of containers. In a carrying position, the containers are positioned horizontally, at right angles to the upright position. For some consumers, carrying beverage containers horizontally is uncomfortable, because of fear, largely groundless, that a container seal may rupture, spilling all or a substantial quantity of the beverage.
In an upright carry position, the look and feel of the package is more natural. However, hereto fore it has been difficult to provide handles of sufficient strength and reliable feel for carrying twelve packs in an upright position. Further, it is desirable that known application equipment be used for applying the carriers to the containers.
Problems have been encountered when applying some previous carriers to containers. When carrier loops are provided in two different superimposed sheets, the distance between outermost carrier loops on opposite sides is determined by the location of welds between the sheets. If the weld location varies the distance between the loops also varies, and stretchability of the carrier can be effected. When loops and handle portions are provided in the same sheet, it is difficult to move the handle portions without distorting the loops. These factors can present problems for automatic application equipment that attaches the carrier to a group of containers.
What is needed in the art is a top lift carrier and a method for its manufacture that works equally well for two row wide and three row wide configurations.